American Fastball
by Green Gallant
Summary: AU. 21 year old Rich Grayson is an upstart rookie pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. With an unbelievable fastball he hopes to make a difference on the team and take them all the way this season. But what happens when he crosses paths with a certain redhead?


_Author's Note: All right I'm back with another story. Its kind of funny, I've wanted to do this fic for a while and now I finally decided to do it. I hope you guys like it. This originally started out as a rewrite of an old Teen Titans fic I posted a few years back called Jimmy Eat World: Work. One of my favorite songs of all time. I'm not sure if this will turn into an eventual songfic or not but I can say that it'll be an ongoing story. I hope you guys like it. And there will be some Rob/Star in the future for those that are intrestred. _

**American Fastball**

Chicago the Windy City, third largest city in the US and famous throughout the world. This town is known for a lot of things both good and bad. Known for pizza, hot dogs, and music, museums and of course sports. Being one of the largest in the country they like many others have a collection of professional teams; in basketball they have the Bulls, hockey the Blackhawks, football da Bears, soccer the Fire, and baseball the Cubs and White Sox. Aside from New York they're the only other city to have two Major League Baseball teams. The Cubs play on the North side of town the Sox play on the South edge. Our story takes place right in the middle of Wrigleyville, at the corner of Clark and Addison where the boys in blue call home.

Rich Grayson was a 21-year-old rookie pitcher for the Cubs after being called up to the Big Leagues from Minor League Baseball affiliate Triple-A ranked Iowa Cubs, had been nervous since the day he received the call. All of his life Rich had been a Cubs fan, being drafted out of high school was no small feat, still without much college training to fall back on, he was still considered a long shot. It seemed as though every time he stepped out on the field he was being watched actually he was. The coach and scout that picked him up put a lot of trust in this boy. And were just praying that this little acquisition wouldn't backfire on them. The team was looking for their next Kerry Wood and not the baggage that came with it. Very few people can launch a 100mph fastball, 11 years ago their boy Kerry was able to. But the season after was wracked with injury after season ending injury their golden boy became more of a hindrance to the team, the more years he hung on until finally releasing him last season. To see such a bright young star go down in flames was devastating to the team and were hoping they wouldn't see the same in this young lad.

"So how's he doing?" the coach asked.

"Well he's been pretty consistent so Far." A young pitcher said standing next to him.

Rich went into the windup and threw it as hard as he could at the catcher. The radar gun registers 98mph.

"That's the third time in a row he's thrown that." the pitcher said.

"All right kid bring it in!" the coach said gesturing him over. Rich threw his last pitch before jogging over to the coach.

"How was that?" Rich asked out of breath.

"It was pretty good, I was wondering if you could throw a little hard than that? Try an' break a hundred?" asked Lou Piniella.

"Yeah I think I can." He said.

"All right get back out there." Lou said. He nodded and raced back out to the pitcher's mound.

Once he was on the mound, even though he was tired and his arm was killing him. He conditioned himself to throw just a little harder for the coach.

"All right c'mon Rich, just dig a lil deeper. You can do this." he whispered.

Going into his windup, he felt his muscles straining as he drew himself inward.

"_Dig deep, dig deep." _

And launched the ball as hard as he could and hit the glove with a loud snap.

'99mph' the radar read. Rich groaned after hearing the other pitcher relay the result.

"All right, c'mon. C'mon damn you!" he muttered as the catcher threw the ball back to him.

"Just take your time Rich!" the coach yelled.

Rich sighed relaxing his body, allowing himself to go completely limp. Muscles then tightened, as he got ready, here's the windup and the pitch.

_Snap! _

'100mph'

"Again!" Lou yelled. Rich went into his windup and the pitch. _Snap! _

'100mph'

"Again!" yelled Lou. He fired it again with the same resounding snap in the catcher's glove. The catch winced as it hit his palm.

"Once more." He said. Rich yelled as he threw the ball with all his might it sailed past the catcher and hit the cage behind him.

'102mph'.

The two men were impressed by the reading and nodded in approval. Rich failed his right arm trying to loosen up the strain and circled the mound before picking up the sandbag and applying some chalk dust to his hand to better grip the ball.

"That's pretty good kid, let's see that one last time." Lou told him.

"You got it." he said catching the ball.

"Hey go a little easy this time, there's a still a human being in here you know." The catcher said. Rich grinned.

"Sorry man." He waved with his glove as he went into his windup and the pitch. The ball sailed across but rebounded off the catcher's kneepad. The catcher flew up and bounced on one foot.

"Ahh! God, oh. Bastard! Ahh!" he moaned.

"Oh crap sorry!" Rich yelled.

"Ahh, what the hell was that? I thought you had better control than that!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry I was aiming higher than that I swear!" he said.

"All right that's enough for today. You all right?" Lou asked.

"Yeah I'm just gonna walk it off." The catcher said limping off the field. Rich grit his teeth and rubbed the back of his neck as he watched him walk off.

"Rich!" Lou said gesturing him to come over. The pitcher grimaced as he slowly made his way back to the dugout and slowly made his way downstairs, his heart in his throat the entire time before standing face to face with him.

"You did pretty good out there today, learn to control the ball a little more and you'll do just fine. And Rich, try not to waste any more of my catchers, I need them for tomorrow." He smiled before patting him on the back.

"Hit the showers." He told him.

"Ok." He said and excused himself.

"Yo coach, take a look at this." the pitcher said warranting his attention. Looking over the man's shoulder the radar gun had a reading of 103mph. the coach smiled.

"Like I said, he learns to control that ball and he'll have a real future on this team. Thanks for showing me." He said and patted him on the shoulder before leaving.

_AN: Ouch, I feel bad for that catcher dont you? _XD_ So that's pretty much all I have for right now, I dont know how many people are here are actually into baseball let alone the Chicago Cubs. I'm sure they'll show themselves soon enough, I'm hopeing so. But like I said, there's an actual purpose to this fic unlike some. And I hope that this'll have people come back for more in a little bit. Not too many people do a sports fic it seems, but hopefully it'll win over the nonsports fans none the less. Let me know what you think in a nice review. _

_Please review. _

_Green Gallant. _

_Cant wait for baseball season to begin once more. _


End file.
